Orleans DA gets murder conviction on third trip to trial in 2008 shooting

An Orleans Parish jury late Wednesday night found Jamaal Tucker guilty as charged for the January 2008 murder of David Sisolak Jr. outside an Algiers public housing development.

Jamaal Tucker

Tucker, 26, will receive the state's mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole or probation for ambushing Sisolak, who was shot in the side of the head as he sat in a parked car in the 1700 block of Hero St. at about 8:30 a.m. Jan. 7, 2008.

Sisolak, 25, was trying to buy drugs that morning from Tucker, who became paranoid when the would-be customer wouldn't hand over his cell phone, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors Eusi Phillips and James Meyers said that Tucker mistook Sisolak for an undercover narcotics detective and decided to kill him in order to escape a charge for dealing drugs.

This was the third time this year that District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro's office has brought Tucker to trial, only to run into mistrials twice.

In response to the guilty verdict, Cannizzaro said, "If you commit a violent crime on the streets of New Orleans, then we will pursue you for as long as it takes. We will neither quit nor give up in our prosecution of murderers."

The jury convicted Tucker based on detailed testimony from the jailhouse informant, who said Tucker had confessed to the killing while the two did time together.

A second man, Joseph Allen, identified Tucker as the killer at this week's trial at Criminal District Court.

The case proved difficult for prosecutors earlier this year, as they dealt with one reluctant eyewitness and another witness who is a convicted felon.

In March, Judge Julian Parker scrapped the trial after finding that prosecutors had defied his order to turn over the criminal records of their witnesses, including an inmate ready to swear that Tucker admitted everything about the shooting while locked up awaiting trial.

By April 20, Tucker was on trial for a second time, when the state's other key witness, Joseph Allen, showed up to tell the jury that he couldn't recall the shooting after all. After three hours of deliberations, the jury couldn't reach a legal verdict.

Cannizzaro's team later charged Allen with perjury, but called him back to court this week.

Allen remains in jail, awaiting trial on the perjury felony. He skipped court after posting $5,000 bond in June.

In 2004, Tucker was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted manslaughter and attempted robbery for a hold-up in the Lower 9th Ward. But he was back on the streets by November 2007, when he was booked with misdemeanor marijuana possession.